Hokm, Line and Stinker

Over the weekend saw the conclusion of an obamination called The World Poker Championships, where a 21-year-old college dropout raked in $8.5 million smackeroos.

I refuse to see this as a 'sport' and its even worse to see it televised. Poker is the kind of game that brings out the douche out of anyone, like olive on rice.

Thus, it appeals to many of us Persian men. Just think about it, ya'll. It's Vegas based. It's about ego. It's betting away obscene amounts of unearned money. There's tons of disgusting cigar/hookah smoking. And the chance to change your name to a character in Godfather.

Backgammon, chess, othello. Uno or all of these are considered 'Hokm', and were once invented in ancient Persia. There's no such thing as an Iranian-American Poker Players Union just yet, but its sure to be on the way. Indeed, there are almost a dozen Irooni professional poker players. Folks who make an flippantly good living flipping cards.

You might have heard or seen one of these dudes. Folks like Ali 'Oliver' Nejad who's a regular on NBC's Poker After Dark and somehow has over 900,000 followers on Twitter. Or maybe Amir 'Antonio' Esfandiari, who's seemingly always interviewed by various media outlets giving out horrible advice on how to score on the cards and with the chicks. Not be out undone there's Daniel Alaei, a twentysomething bloke who's losing all his hair but is growing a pair-of-dice in earnings.